A Forebear's Formidable Fare

Five siblings in Australia are recreating their grandfather Charlie Heard's world-record taxicab ride. Charlie drove Ada Beal and two other ladies on a 7,000-mile, three-month journey from Geelong to Darwin and back in 1930.

Ron, Steve, Bob and Doug Heard and their sister Anne Cole have squashed themselves in to the 1929 Essex they are driving.

“After doing a bit of research and checking the world book of records it looks to be the longest continuous taxi fare in the world, we are re-enacting Australian history,” Steve said.

Leaving on the exact date, June 20, from the same Geelong address, the siblings will travel the 7003 miles or 11,500 kilometres covered by their grandfather. The Essex, which is almost identical to the one driven by their grandfather, has had its engine completely rebuilt.

“We are going exactly where he went and stopping off where he did,” Steve said. [Link]

Antarctic Ancestors

Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew came within 97 miles of the South Pole on a 1908-09 expedition. Now six relatives of the team members are setting out to finish the trip, hauling their own supplies and carrying Shackleton's own compass.

Besides [Shackleton great-great-nephew Will] Gow, the group includes Shackleton's great-grandson, Patrick Bergel, 36, who works in advertising; Henry Adams, 33, a shipping lawyer and great-grandson of Jameson Adams; Tim Fright, 24, an MA student and great-great-nephew of Frank Wild; David Cornell, 38, a fund manager and another great-grandson of Adams; and ground leader Lt Col Henry Worsley, 46, a soldier in The Rifles, who is hoping to confirm family links to Frank Worsley, Shackleton's navigator on the Endurance. [Link]

The team should stop at Shackleton's Hut if they need provisions.

[Photo credit: The Lordprice Collection]

Teen Unsheaths His Sword in Public

To mark the 700th anniversary of Robert the Bruce's momentous journey from Rathlin Island off Northern Ireland to the Isle of Arran in Scotland, Lord Bruce of Kinloss and his three sons retraced their relative's steps carrying his original sword.

Lord Bruce’s eldest son, 16-year-old James, who has the title Master of Bruce was carrying the sword which was nearly as big as him and he took it out of the sheath to show the crowd on Lamlash pier.

‘It is not as heavy as you would think,’ said Lord Bruce. ‘The strength is in the tempering of the blade.’ [Link]

Planning a trip to Scotland? Then you'll need your very own Robert the Bruce sword. Good luck getting it through airport security.

Drop Your Pants and Be a Part of History

Visitors to Åsens By in southeastern Sweden can use a toilet just like the ones used by their 18th-century ancestors.

In previous centuries most Swedes used similar facilities said Patricia Blaker, who led the project to restore the venerable dunny.

"We get lots of school classes who come here and most haven't used an ordinary outside toilet," she told The Local.

"Now they can get the chance to use it like people used to." [Link]

My parents have an authentic 19th-century outhouse attached to the back of their barn. After reading this, I'm thinking of charging admission.

Retirement Has Much in Store for Him

Dick Rudisill's great-grandfather ran a small general store in North Carolina. Now that he's retired, Rudisill is turning his Syracuse, N. Y., home into a small general store.

Dick calls his hobby "close to addictive." The Rudisills' home is almost completely decorated with "store items." Fortunately, Cindy's a fan of the old-time things, also.

Above the fireplace mantle, for instance, is not a peaceable landscape or an ancestor portrait, but a piece designed to steal your heart: a large metal sign for None Such mincemeat, made in Syracuse until recently by Merrell-Soule and later Borden. [Link]

Lovely Weather For a Run

More than 100 Northern Cheyenne ran a 400-mile relay last week in subzero temperatures and blowing snow. They were commemorating an attempt their ancestors made in the winter of 1879 to escape from an Army outpost in Nebraska to their Montana homeland.

This year’s Fort Robinson Outbreak Spiritual Run began Jan. 9 in Crawford, Neb., and ended Sunday in Busby, where dozens of people greeted the returning runners with ululating and the sound of car horns.

“It’s a privilege and an honor to be with these kids, they’re so strong,” said 67-year-old Marie Sanchez, who ran the relay with six of her grandchildren. “They might be a little rowdy at first but they settle down, they are respectful.” [Link]

There's Something About Mary's Scrubbing

Seiji Shiba of Lehi, Utah spent the weekend at a History Camp for Kids held at Camp Floyd/Stagecoach Inn State Park. The 10-year-old's family has a special connection to the place.

While serving at Camp Floyd, Seiji's great-great grandfather fell in love with a washer-woman named Mary Taylor, said RaFawn Rogers. When the soldiers were recalled in 1861, [Louis Strasburg's] military service was up and he stayed in Utah, eventually becoming the mayor of Tooele. Rogers said she wanted Seiji to come the history camp to learn more about his heritage and what life was like for his great-great-grandfather.

"What a wonderful way to teach kids history," she said. [Link]

In an unexpected twist, Seiji fell in love with a local washer-woman and refused to return to Lehi with his parents.

[N.B. Web sources, including the IGI, give Mary's surname as Armstrong.]

Too Many Captain Clarks

Churchill Clark and Peyton "Bud" Clark are both descendants of Captain William of Lewis and Clark fame. The pair crossed paths in Livingston, Montana, yesterday, exactly 200 years after their ancestor crossed the Yellowstone River there.

Both men, who are very distant relatives, have spent most of the past three years retracing the steps of their ancestor. They started out traveling together, but split up after a falling out. [Link]

Each man is part of a larger group commemorating the bicentennial of the expedition—Bud with Discovery Expedition, Churchill with Lewis and Clark Then and Now. An article last November at Willamette Week Online sought to explain the schism.

It seems somewhere in North Dakota, the modern-day Meriwether Lewis ditched the modern-day William Clark and took off in his own canoe with three men and a dog, assuming the name "Lewis and Clark Then and Now." [Link]

One of the men Lewis (a.k.a. Scott Mandrell) took off with was Churchill Clark, who had previously been relegated to the role of a lowly private. The promotion to captain must have come as a surprise to Churchill, given that his job prior to the expedition was "Karaoke operator."

Gussie and Addie's Excellent Adventure

From July 4, 1916, to Sept. 8, 1916, sisters Augusta and Adeline Van Buren traveled 5,500 miles from New York to San Diego on motorcycles. Ninety years later, their great-nephew Robert Van Buren and his wife Rhonda are recreating that historic trip—taken to prove that women were fit to serve as motorcycle dispatchers in World War I.

"They figured if they could make a trip across the country, through the mud, the dirt and weather, then the military would see that women could do the job and free men up for duty on the front lines," [Robert] said.

So, Gussie and Addie headed out on a trip where, for the most part, there were no roads and no maps for the country west of the Mississippi River.

The Van Buren sisters were the first women to ride the new auto road to the summit of Pike's Peak. They were also arrested somewhere in the Midwest for wearing pants.

"Women didn't wear pants back then," Robert said.

Rhonda said, "They weren't just pants, they were red leather." [Link]

Robert and Rhonda's journey is also a fundraiser for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. You can learn how to support this worthy cause, and find out more about the Van Buren Sisters, at vanburensisters.com.